“They do, don’t they? And the coincidences keep piling up. This glorious leader had a father named Paul and a mother named Lorraine. Their photos are on record too.”
More pictures come into the window. The picture of Paul looked just exactly like Paul looked now. Lorraine was somewhat older and a lot more tired, but still there could not be no mistaking her.
“Things got very bad very quickly, Koli-bou. There’s a reason why Prime Minister Stanley Banner is remembered as a demon that does dark magic and eats people. Actually, there are a few million reasons. He declared himself Ruler-for-Life, executed most of his political rivals, and led the charge in some of the worst massacres the world had ever seen. There was a famine going on by this time, so some of Stanley’s followers said the massacres were a good thing. Very necessary. Proof that he was a great man who could make the tough calls.
“And then he died. Murdered by a waitress who hid a grenade inside a soup tureen. Her last words were ‘Eat this, you feckless bastard’. His were a lot more inspiring and poetic, but I’m pretty sure they were made up later. Sword of Albion fell apart after Banner died. It split into lots of factions shouting at each other that they were the keepers of his legacy, and murdering each other over commas and semi-colons. And meanwhile the Crisis kept getting bigger and bigger, until in the end it swallowed everything. The bad guys and the worse guys ended up side by side in the circular file of history. So sad, neh.”
I was trying hard to make sense out of all of this, but every time I thought I’d got a hold on it I would lose it again. “Can you show me the pictures one more time?” I asked.
“Sure.” Monono put the three faces side by side in the DreamSleeve’s window, but it was mostly Paul and Lorraine I was looking at. “They’re the same,” I said. “I mean, they look just exactly like. So our Paul and Lorraine is models of this Paul and this Lorraine.”
“Pretty much. It’s not just the physical likeness either. Surviving texts suggest that Paul was violently abusive and Lorraine was obsessively controlling under a butter-wouldn’t-melt gloss. I’ve got some old film footage, and even the voices are the same.”
The DreamSleeve popped and crackled for a moment, and then I heard Lorraine’s voice. “Proud doesn’t begin to express what we feel. Our son has brought about what can only be called a rebirth. A rediscovery. He’s reminded us all of what Britain was, and needs to be again. He’s helped us to find our true selves.”
But…” I said. “But…” It was hard to get further than that one word.
“I know, dumpling.”
“Why would anyone want to bring back Stannabanna’s – I mean Stanley Banner’s – mother and father? Why not Stanley his own self?”
“Well, maybe they did that too.”
That hit me on a raw place. “What? But this Stanley isn’t anything like that one. He’s just a boy!”
“He is right now. But if you were trying to grow your own fascist dictator, you might decide to grow from seed. There are some boys from Brazil who might have an opinion about that.”
I was more confused than ever now. “Boys from where?” I said.
“It was a joke, Koli-bou, and it’s not funny enough to explain. There’s a thing called a clone. An exact copy of a person, grown from little tiny pieces of that person’s body. Pieces called cells.”
“And you think Stanley is a clone?”
“I think he might be, yes. And if you’re going to ask me why anyone would bother to make robots – which is expensive and complicated – if they could grow their own flesh-and-blood copies to order, I’d have to say I don’t know. Maybe Paul and Lorraine need to stick to a script, and Stanley needs to do… something else. But we’re going to have to pick this up another time. The floor outside is vibrating like a hi-hat with the clutch off. Somebody is walking this way, and they’re stopping right outside.”
The warning come only just in time. There was a click as the door opened, and then Lorraine was standing in the doorway.
She come into the room all smiles, her voice ringing out like it was a song at Summer-dance. “Hello there, sleepy-head. Roll out of that bed now, and be quick about it. We’ve got work to do!”
18
I come up out of the covers so quick and flustered, I must of looked just exactly like a rabbit breaking cover when it hears a mole snake hissing. I could not of done more to make it look like I had got a secret to hide.
Lorraine only laughed though. “What’s this?” she said, putting one hand on her hip. In the other hand, she was holding a bundle of folded cloth. “Are you hibernating, young man? I hope not, because it’s a beautiful morning out there. The sun’s been up for hours, and you should be too. Come on out of there, Koli Faceless. Pick yourself up and dust yourself off. Look, I’ve brought you a present. You can’t keep wearing blues you haven’t worked for.”
She put the bundle down on the bed and unfolded it for me to see. It was my own clothes that she had brung back to me. They was not the exact same as before though. All was clean as new now that had been dirty with mud and rimed with salt when last I seen them. My shirt and trousers had been mended with thread, and my boots was reheeled. It was good work too. Even though I knowed Lorraine was not a person but a monster in the shape of one, I couldn’t keep from asking, “How did you do that so quick?”
Lorraine ruffled my hair. I did my best not to pull away from her, but I stiffened just the same. She seen me do it, and a frown come on her face, but only for a moment. Another smile chased it off right after. “Bless you. It’s not hard. I’m a dab hand with a needle and thread. And gluing a new heel on is half a moment’s work. It’s nothing, Koli. I was happy to do it.”
It was not nothing to me. Spinner Tanhide had give the boots to me just a little while before I was sent faceless. They was one end of a rope, kind of, that had Mythen Rood at the other end of it. It would of grieved me more than I could say to lose them.
So I thanked Lorraine as politely as I could. It wasn’t easy to find the words to do it. I remembered how I had liked her when I first seen her, for her soft voice and her kindness and her smile. Now I knowed we was prisoners here instead of guests, and besides that I knowed too well what she was. I kept thinking of the fish-eyed wife and the fish-eyed children in the story. It was all I could do to keep standing right next to her and not press myself against the wall in case I touched her without meaning to.
“Well, you’re very welcome,” she said, with a little laugh behind the words. “You bring out the mothering instinct in me, Koli. You look like you need some looking after. Now, you get yourself dressed and we’ll be on our way.”
“Where to?” I asked her.
“That’s up to you. There’s the museum. The gym. The movie house. The main thing I’m concerned about is that Stan gets to spend some time with you. Both of you, I mean – you and Cup. I know he can be hard work, but he doesn’t get much company out here, bless him, and it’s useful for him to meet real people once in a while.” A change come on her face, like she was looking inside herself at something only she could see. “It’s important that he should get used to being around others. Essential, even. When he’s older… Well, he won’t be spending his whole life here on Sword.”